Well okay, I know that lately I talk a lot of hyenas, if the giant hyena or brevirostris, if Chasmaporthetes including I talk about the evolution LINK. But the animal from which I will talk today is not exactly a hyena, but almost almost (is in the same sub).Let's talk Dinocrocuta, which literally translated for me, means "Hyena terrible."If the spotted hyena is an animal bite with a power far superior to that of other carnivores of the same size, Dinocrocuta, had a bite even higher. No broken bones, triturated like a herbivore grinds the beans and branches. You just have to take a look at his skull.

The skull was tremendous, huge, note that the strong mandibles look like an elephant but with fangs that look like projectiles. If you have that jaw so wide is to hold the attachments of muscles breakers incredibly powerful and if you have those huge fangs was to withstand the great pressure exerted by the jaws. Possibly one of the largest land mammals with bite force of all time, rather than the Megistotherium, the Androwsarcus and equating to Daeodon or pork terrible.

But this skull to hold the neck and body should be titanic. It is estimated that weighed up to 400 kg (1200 lb). Maybe that will not say anything, but keep in mind that the hyena does not exceed 90kg now, and the lions of Africa, do not exceed 300 kg (900 lb). It is true that during the Miocene, there were other large predators and large herbivores that had fed. And the best thing to have an idea, it's back to the comparisons:

Lion, Dinocrocuta, Cave Lion and Cave Bear.

As shown in the picture, the skull of Dinocrocuta is almost as big as the cave lion and almost the same as the Cave Bear ... but if you look properly on, will see that the bones are more robust. This means that it was perhaps a top predator of its time.

As I said, the Dinocrocuta lived in the late Miocene in Africa, Asia and Europe. And actively hunted large animals, herbivores and carnivores. Animals like the woolly rhinoceros (which bones have been found with tooth marks posilizados of Dinocrocuta cured, so it is given an active role in not only hunting and predator) the Paraceratherium, the Platybelodon, Calicoterios Anisonodon and even the great mammoth.

This prehistoric animal is an animal very curious. Due to the different characteristics was an animal uncommon, and is called Chasmaporthetes, although not really a distinct species, it really is the family of a peculiar group of hyenas. Chasmaporthetes size is about 1 meter (3,3 ft) tall at the withers and an average of 80 kg (170 lbs). To get an idea, would be as large as the spotted hyenas that appear in documentaries in Africa but, more graceful, slightly taller and less robust.

The two main features of this hyena are:

First, their teeth. The Hyaenidae are characterized by a modified dentition for intervention on the hard tissues of the mammalian skeleton, and this is because most species are scavengers. However, representatives of the genre were primarily hunters Chasmaporthetes. I remember talking about the kind of prehistoric hyena Pachycrocuta (giant hyena), had a bite so powerful, so strong teeth and was so great that I could grind up the bones of elephants, LINK.

But back to what we want. When the experts found the jaw of Chasmaporthetes began to think that this species were mostly carrion, but rather active predators. To understand the difference, we could say that their molar teeth were made to cut, and not crushed. Something like the current cats, they are better equipped to hunt than to live on carrion.

The idea that predators were reinforced when analyzing its skeleton, found that their physiology was specialized in speed. Experts think that the Chasmaporthetes could reach up to 100 km / h (64 mll/h) and had to compete with the giant cheetah Acinonyx pardinensis of the time. Her long legs and slender body adapted to the speed, gave him a look that is classified in the group of hyena-like dogs ... talk about it another day.

Secondly, its distribution. We are accustomed to seeing the hyenas in Africa or South Asia and is easy to think that we in the east half and the Strait of Gibraltar, the hyenas could colonize Asia and Europe. For example, in Europe was the spice Chasmaporthetes lunensis. Well, another species, called Chasmaporthetes australis was the only species of hyena that through the Bering Strait colonized all of North America. This may not tell you much but it was this species, the swift hunter hyena, hyena more common around the world and of all time (although it is hardly known today). Lived parts of the world more than any other hyena, whether extinct or still alive.

Chasmaporthetes is a genus that lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America about 15 million years ago during the Miocene. In short, a sort of prehistoric animal that I thought you would like to know if you love animals, prehistoric or not.

Famous is the force that have the jaws of the hyenas that can reach pressures of 350 kg (600lb)and teeth grinding of hard bones and teeth and hooves. Well, now imagine a hyena twice as big, twice as strong and a powerful jaw twice ... this animal there was Pachycrocuta brevirostris.

Pachycrocuta a genus of prehistoric hyenas. The largest specimen, well-documented part of the species of giant hyenas Pachycrocuta brevirostris. With a height of 1 meter (39 in) and weigh up to 120 kg (250 lb).Un similar in size to a small lioness.This size would make it the largest of the hyenas that have ever lived. He lived from the Middle Pliocene and Middle Pleistocene, about 3 million and 500,000 years ago.Found fossils in Eurasia and southern and eastern Africa. In dens, caves used as dens.Scavenger and a predator could be stubborn and tenacious to deer hunting big and small package was probably a hunter of large animals (up to larger deer and occasionally as Megaloceros). The chance of a scavenger is sensed it was a very big animal not built for chasing prey over long distances. In this aspect would have differed from today spotted hyena, which is a more agile animal that, contrary to his image of the documentaries, also kills his own food. Apparently it was ecologically close enough to the smaller (but still important) in relation perrieri Pliocrocuta never found as fossils contemporaries in the same region.